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Fri, 22 Feb 2019 11:24:14 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.2How to Belly Breathehttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/how-to-belly-breathe/
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 20:17:52 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=73782When it comes to improved digestion, reduced levels of stress, and overall health, the gut is the place to start. But it’s not just about what we put into our bodies. It’s also about unlearning toxic patterns that restrict our oxygen levels, perpetuate stress, and impede whole-body health. According to Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere, ...continue

Whenever one of my clients is having a difficult time with digestion, movement, connecting with her body or her true emotion, or when she finds herself in a rut, struggling with healing, I notice that she has in some way constricted her breathing. Rather than get entangled in the web of her apparent problems, I gently repeat one of my personal mantras: “Breathing is so groovy,” and I go to the belly, because that is where true breathing begins. People often ask me: Why is breathing so important? Doesn’t everyone breathe? Isn’t it just something we do naturally? Here are my short answers to these questions. Belly Breathing is important, even vital, because it puts you immediately back into your body and helps you feel fully, from the center outward to the extremities. If you are breathing into your belly, which is the natural way, it’s almost impossible to remain stressed and uncomfortable. Yes, everyone does breathe, but very few people do so anywhere near full potential. Almost everyone I encounter is breathing just enough to stay alive and no more.

How to Belly Breathe:

Lie on your back with your knees up, either on the bed or the floor. Make sure you are comfortable and that you are in a well-ventilated area. If you wish, you can put pillows under your knees, but make sure you use enough to get your knees well elevated. An alternative is to let your knees come together and rest against each other. You want to be able to relax the legs while not exerting the slightest muscular tension in the hips or abdomen to keep them up.

First, bring awareness to the way you are breathing now. Does it flow, struggle, get caught in your throat or chest? Or is it imperceptible? Is it deep or shallow? Is it painful or boring to rest, to be quiet, to feel your inner rhythm? Feel your back against the floor. Bring your awareness to your spine. Feel its full length, from the sacrum up through the neck. Keep breathing and connecting to the sensation of your spine.

Place your hands firmly but gently on your belly, index fingers pointing in toward each other, touching the navel, and if you can, keep your elbows resting on the floor. Inhale slowly, and feel your belly rise gently, pushing against your hands. Exhale and let the belly fall back. Once you have that rhythm in place, with the belly enlarging on the inhale and collapsing on the exhale, try to expand the volume of air taken on the inhale. On each inhale try to fill up the entire belly from your hips up to the bottom edge of the rib cage. Let your chest relax. Try to get the belly to fill up completely, rising on the inhale, lowering on the exhale, without using the chest muscles.

The more you practice, the more you will grasp this gentle, natural way of breathing. Your belly fills and empties of air almost of its own free will. You want to be careful that you are actually drawing air in deeply to the center, not just flexing the abdominal muscles and pushing the surface out. That’s not bringing in air; that’s just an abdominal exercise, and it will only make you more tense. Let the air wash in and out as if it were the waves at the seashore. The waves come in and out of their own accord—no pumping, no forcing—and in the same way, experience your belly expanding and collapsing as a reaction to the movement of the waves of air.

Another important aspect of Belly Breathing is to breathe in through the nose, and gently—without forcing—to exhale through the mouth. You will have to inhale slowly and gently, and relax all muscles, in order to fill up the belly entirely. Exhale through the open mouth in an unhurried fashion and soften the neck and jaw. (You don’t want to be exhaling through clenched teeth.) Quite often people hear “open the mouth,” and instead of letting go of tension in the jaw, they purse the lips and blow hard. That’s not it. Let the jaw drop, and on the exhale, give a gentle sigh.

All this may take some practice. Don’t expect to get it all at once. Check to see where it is difficult to fill up with breath and if you can do it without muscle exertion. (Of course, there are some muscles working, but in very subtle ways.) The softer you keep your legs, back, shoulders, neck, and even the arms, the more air you are going to get in and the more space you will give the internal organs to unwind and expand into. The more relaxed and complete the exhale, the more you will clear the body of old stale air.

When you feel that your breathing is rhythmic, complete, and effortless, you can, at the very end of the exhale, tuck in the abdominal muscles very slightly to expel that last bit of stale air. But be sure to relax the muscles on the subsequent inhale.

If you become dizzy or nauseous, take a rest. Do not be alarmed. It just shows how much you need to do this! Enhanced breathing brings waste products into the bloodstream quite rapidly, and that can make you feel queasy for a bit. If you stay relaxed during this exercise and take it slowly, you will detoxify the blood at a proper pace without any harm whatsoever. If you do become lightheaded, rest until you feel grounded. You can resume your practice at another time.

Despite how simple this exercise may seem or how involved my description is, I urge you not to skip it. Keep practicing until you get the hang of it. When you are comfortable with Belly Breathing you will be energized and will look forward to more. Also, please remember that Belly Breathing is an exercise. It is designed to clear the center of toxicity and to teach the body to breathe naturally. Belly Breathing is not meant to be an ideal form of “perfect” breathing that you are required to do continuously.

]]>Letter from the Publisherhttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/letter-from-the-publisher-reimagining-death/
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 18:35:16 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=73663Sometimes the collaboration between an author and publisher starts with the tiniest of seeds. Such was the case with Lucinda Herring’s groundbreaking book, Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials. In June 2016 I read a social media post from a close friend of mine. I knew her mother had ...continue

]]>Sometimes the collaboration between an author and publisher starts with the tiniest of seeds.

Such was the case with Lucinda Herring’s groundbreaking book, Reimagining Death: Stories and Practical Wisdom for Home Funerals and Green Burials. In June 2016 I read a social media post from a close friend of mine. I knew her mother had been very ill, and I was saddened to read that she had died. In her note, my friend talked about how she and her family had decided to have a home funeral for her mother, which felt more in line with her values than a typical ceremony. My friend linked to an article in Grist that validated their decision.

I have always been curious about more holistic, less antiseptic approaches to death, perhaps because I have been to so many funerals and so often noticed the ways these events feel oddly out-of-sync with the deceased person’s spirit. I distinctly remember the first funeral I ever attended as a young man: the event was so formal and so cold that I envisioned my friend rising from the casket and dancing around the room, wondering aloud why her community had dishonored the audacious way she had lived her life. “Did you forget who I am?” I imagined her shouting in defiance to the people assembled in the pews.

Not that there is anything wrong with traditional American funerals: I’ve just always wanted more from them. Same with traditional American burials: I fundamentally question a process that dumps huge financial costs on grieving families and toxic chemicals into the soil. And so it was with great interest that I clicked on my friend’s link and found an inspiring story about a family that had worked with a licensed funeral director in the state of Washington to create a beautiful home vigil and green burial for their father. Knowing that North Atlantic Books looks for authentic, pioneering practitioners in compelling disciplines and lineages, I quickly looked up the funeral director, Lucinda Herring, and dropped her a note asking if she might be interested in exploring a book project.

Her response brought goose bumps: “Life is so marvelous, really. I have had so many doubts of late about the wisdom of continuing to say ‘yes’ to this natural-death work. Today was one of those days—when the toll of abysmal pay and living on the edge, of putting my own art and writing on hold for years, in order to help others—all felt too much for me. Then, home and a quick glance at my Inbox—and there you are. ‘Exploring a book?’ I must confess I burst into tears.”

And so it was that Lucinda and North Atlantic Books embarked on the wild road of publishing a book together. Through hard work, transparent and frequent communication, and faith not only in each other but in the importance of providing alternative narratives and practices to how we do death, we were able to bring Reimagining Death to the world a full two and a half years later. I’ve put a copy in the mail to my friend so that she can see the tree that grew from the seed she blew to the wind.

]]>Lucinda Herring and Trebbe Johnson in Conversationhttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/lucinda-herring-and-trebbe-johnson-on-life-and-grief/
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:38:58 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=58533NAB authors Lucinda Herring, author of the upcoming book Reimagining Death, and Trebbe Johnson, author of Radical Joy for Hard Times, came together this fall to discuss life, grief, and the connections within their work. Below is their conversation. Trebbe Johnson (TJ): Lucinda, you and I are both writing about circumstances that many people ...continue

Trebbe Johnson (TJ): Lucinda, you and I are both writing about circumstances that many people would prefer to avoid at all costs! You write about the end of life. I write about damaged places on the Earth. Perhaps especially in our American culture, these are subjects that can seem scary and depressing. And we’re both saying, each in our own way: Not at all! In your book, Reimagining Death, you show how people can care for loved ones after they’ve died in ways that are actually beautiful, joyful, full of wonder, and even, at times, spiced with humor. I finished your book about a month ago, and I am still thinking about it.

Lucinda Herring (LH): Yes, Trebbe, it’s gratifying to see how ‘kin’ your book Radical Joy in Hard Times is to mine. Thank you for inspiring us to not turn away, but turn toward all the heartbreak and loss we feel when the natural places we love are destroyed. To feel all our emotions, and find some semblance of acceptance and healing, even joy in such an encounter. It is such a difficult thing to do, and yet, if we can support each other, perhaps it’s possible. With home funeral vigils, which are really just the way we used to care for our dead—at home, in the company of those we love and trust—we can turn back toward death, instead of retreating into our usual denial and avoidance, just as you are advocating we do with devastated natural places. We can be ourselves, and call on our instinctive capacities to bring art, ritual and beauty to a time of loss and sorrow. There are so many gifts available when we have the courage to ‘lean into the sharp points,’ as Chogyam Trungpa put it, and do so creatively. That’s what you and I are both saying.

TJ: One way to “lean into the sharp points” is to cultivate presence with that which is not the way it used to be or how I wish it could be again. In my work, I emphasize the importance for people actually to spend time in these wounded places, like clear-cut forests and polluted beaches. That’s how we discover the aliveness, beauty, and resilience of nature in all its forms. I call this practice “gazing.” In your book, you urge readers to “witness” the dying process and the burial that follows in a more conscious way. Could you say more about why witnessing is so crucial?

LH: There are many people today who have never been around a dead body in its natural state. If we have seen a corpse, it has been at a funeral home visitation where we spend a few moments gazing into an open casket, grateful that we can turn away soon and get on with our lives. That experience is a far cry from what we can receive by caring for someone’s body ourselves. When we bathe the cold unmoving form of someone we love, comb her hair and dress her one last time; when we lower her heavy, inert body down ourselves into an open grave; we receive a direct and visceral, full body understanding of what it means to ‘be dead.’ Being willing to stay present and witness this process can be so helpful and healing. It can transform our relationship to death itself.

TJ: That’s beautiful! And I’ll bet that the people you work with and guide in this way also discover that the very thing they were so reluctant to face—confronting the corpse of their loved one—fearing that to do so will debilitate them, is, in fact, a beautiful, liberating experience. People tell me that about their visits to wounded places too. They start out thinking that going to a clear-cut forest or a mountain scraped bare by mining is a very weird idea and will probably be depressing. But then they go, they share stories, they make a gift of beauty for the place… and they end up falling in love with it!

LH: I love that you encourage people to offer a gift of beauty in the midst of loss and sorrow. Your “Attending the City” event to help New Yorkers after 9/11 with their shock and grief really moved me. Having folks commit to creating some act of beauty in the city in direct response to the horror was such a wise and healing suggestion. I do the same with families and communities who are grieving a death. The beauty that emerges from hearts cracked wide open is astounding to me. It can be as simple as the tiny yellow narcissus that a young daughter placed behind her father’s ear in his casket, or as elaborate as a beloved person’s body wrapped in a white silk shroud, printed with hundreds of messages of love from around the world. Creating beauty from our pain can bring us a courage and resilience we might not otherwise feel, and a moment of solace in the storm.

TJ: I’m touched by your story of the young girl who lovingly placed a flower behind her father’s ear as he lay in his casket. One last gift, offered with love and sadness all mixed together into a gesture that is simple and direct, yet suffused with meaning for the rest of that young woman’s life. There is something mysterious and quite inexplicable that happens when we make these gestures that reach with kindness, compassion, and creativity beyond the world of the known and into that of the unknown and desperately sad. I see it happen over and over when people go to places whose loss they truly grieve and make a simple gift of beauty, and consolation for those places. I don’t know how to explain it, but it has something to do with discovering that we have the ability to touch—more than touch, really, to caress—what has saddened and frightened us. It somehow gives us courage to deal more courageously and generously with all kinds of challenges in life.

LH: Yes, and such a gesture of love can at times open doorways into the subtle realms of existence and reveal connections and synchronicities we might not otherwise be aware of as human beings. I have experienced that our willingness to be present and compassionate, and to create beauty out of suffering can draw to us the very support we might need from the natural world and from the webs of life and intelligence—seen and unseen—around us. Such support is probably always there, waiting for us to notice and receive, if we are able. It is my experience that we, as human beings, are being ‘called’ now, to wake up and to consciously partner with these larger dimensions of life again, for the welfare of all sentient beings and for the planet itself. In my experience, the threshold of death is a time when such “I-Thou” partnerships are possible. I imagine that the moments when people create art and ritual in devastated places are also gateways of possibility. Many of the stories I tell in my book express the wonder and sacred mystery of such encounters.

TJ: It’s so easy, in our normal, busy, technologically-driven lives, to forget that these “subtle realms” really do exist. The stories you tell in your book of such I-Thou encounters when people are immersed in the reality of death are so moving and beautiful. They occur as well when people are present and mindful in nature. With the gifts of beauty we make for hurt places, we don’t claim to be able to “heal” the Earth, but sometimes it seems that something like that does happen. I remember one story of a woman who was worried about the sea turtles on the Alabama coast. The female turtles only come ashore once a year, and that’s to bury their eggs in the sand. Now those eggs are endangered by ATVs, dogs, and other disturbances. With a couple of friends this woman worked with seaweed to make an image of a turtle in the sand. A few days later, she wrote me to say that a female turtle had laid her eggs right by that image! And a few days later another turtle did the same! Did the consciousness behind the gift convey something to those turtles? There’s no way of knowing. But there is such magic in stories like this.

LH: Your story is a perfect example of what can happen when human beings reach out to the natural world from a place of love, concern, and care. A tangible sense of reciprocity and dialogue between humans and nature can emerge, one that asks us to put aside our doubting dismissive minds for a time, and consider what it might mean to partner or co-create with the natural world and the subtle dimensions of life once again. What would such co-creative partnership look like, and what unknown gifts and possibilities could emerge from such a reunion? When my mother died, I had a powerful experience of working consciously with the spirits of our land during her transition, and that experience lies at the heart of my book. Somehow, such partnership helped me accept my mother’s death and find a greater ‘brightness of being’ amidst the very real pain and loss I was experiencing. Surely such co-creativity is also happening on some level when your groups gather to bear witness to the destruction and loss of the places they love. The idea that the ecology of a place can be responsive, even supportive of human beings who are present and who reach out for kinship—this is exciting, for it hints of a partnership of potential we can cultivate for the wellbeing of all. A potential that holds seeds of hope and renewal for our future. I like to think that our books are part of those seeds, Trebbe, and can be of service in these troubled times. May it be so!

]]>Spellwork: Do’s, Don’ts, and Building an Altar from Green Witch Robin Rose Bennetthttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/spellwork-dos-donts-and-building-an-altar-from-green-witch-robin-rose-bennett/
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:53:18 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=58058Adapted from Healing Magic, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living by Robin Rose Bennett Green Magic: Spells Spells are focused on spelling out what you want or need, and are often quite effective. A spell can bring a magical vibration to your endeavor right from the beginning or, in some instances, ...continue

Green Magic: Spells

Spells are focused on spelling out what you want or need, and are often quite effective. A spell can bring a magical vibration to your endeavor right from the beginning or, in some instances, a spell is done when you have exhausted all other possibilities. The four broad, basic steps of a spell are: Conceive it. Craft it. Communicate it. Release it. The fifth step underlies all the others: Know it’s possible, so you’ll open to receive it.

Spells are focused, and initiated within a ritual setting. When you do a spell, you are claiming your power as co-creative artist of your life. This is good practice for consciously collaborating with the Universe in creating your everyday life too.

One of the differences between a magical spell and a prayer is that in a spell, you are not actually asking; you are invoking and evoking. This is neither asking nor demanding; it is calling forth what you are seeking, and giving thanks for it as if you have already found it, as if whatever you want to happen has already happened. You are invoking what you want, and evoking the feeling that it has already manifested, by imagining it deeply and kinesthetically (in your body), and giving thanks for it.

Spells work best when done with the deepest gratitude for receiving. Give thanks for all you receive and have. Talk to God—Goddess—All-That-Is about what you want, with the full expectation of receiving exactly that, or something even greater that the Universe may have in mind for you. Spells are more about trust than control, more about honing your mind and opening your heart than about controlling your domain.

Building an Altar

Building an altar is not essential to doing a spell, but it is almost always done. An altar creates a focal point for your energy or the energy of the group. It also gives you something beautiful to place the directional candles on.

Basically, you need a lovely cloth, and a flat surface to spread it over. Once you have put candles for the four directions and the center on the special altar cloth, you have built an altar. Anything more is up to you. Sometimes additional symbols are placed on the altar to represent one or more of the elements. For example:

North—a stone, a bone, a crystal, a pentagram or a seven-or nine-pointed star, a plant, a small tree

Feel free to use any symbols that you choose for your altar items.

When casting a spell, you put your crafted spell and any other relevant sacred items on the altar. These are placed on the altar for some time, ranging from the length of the circle and spell-casting itself to months or even years, depending on the spell.

Generally, most spells will be left out, working on the altar, from three days to several moon cycles. When you cast a spell within a sacred circle, alone or with other people, it is being communicated. It continues to be communicated for whatever length of time your crafted item is left out on your altar, whether you are speaking spell words over it or not. Once you take your working sacred items off the altar, you begin to move into the fourth step—releasing the spell to the earth, to a living body of water, or to fire (which also includes air, as air both feeds the flames and receives the intentions and prayers carried in the smoke as the spell is released). I almost always give back the complete contents of the spell, but not usually the sacred items that were simply “assisting” by being part of the altar.

Many times people create altars that they don’t call altars; they call what they’re doing decorating. Family photo “shrines” are common forms of sacred altars in many homes. There are all sorts of altars. I have impromptu blessing altars all over the house. I build them spontaneously anywhere I go, inside and out. On the road, I use my jewelry or scarves—whatever I happen to have with me—or items from nature when I’m outside. Making altars creates beauty and harmony.

It’s good practice, too, for consciously engaging your magical, metaphorical mind, your eye for seeing meaning and beauty in the midst of the everyday world.

Use mostly natural items on your altar to evoke the sacred, including flowers, fruits, shells, stones, beeswax candles, feathers, favorite jewelry, herbs, crystals, and more. Create at least one sacred haven in your home. A home altar becomes a place where, if only for a moment, you can rest your eye, soothe your mind, and feel at peace.

Back to spells. In Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés says, “Remember, whatever you are seeking is also seeking you.”

The clearer you are in calling to whomever you direct your invocations, the easier it is for what you are calling forth to find you. You have made yourself more receptive to it. Whatever you are dreaming of that has inspired you to craft your spell—whether it’s getting a sum of money you need, the wonderful lover you deserve, or helping to pass a resolution that saves the woods and wetlands in your township— you are creating a magnetic resonance in the present that magically attracts what you are calling forth from the future. You begin living in the future/present by inviting yourself to enjoy the feeling, now, that you hope to have more of in the future.

Metaphor and Symbol

Spell work requires symbolic thinking. It’s a combination of making mature decisions about what you want, and bringing childlike, artistic playfulness to the process of choosing how to attract it as you plan and craft your spell. In herbal magic, we look at the magical gifts and properties of plants and trees metaphorically, and connect those properties with ways they could be used symbolically in spells, rituals, and ceremonial magic.

Candles are another integral part of magical practices. Natural beeswax candles are preferable to petroleum-based candles if you can afford them. I have also recently begun to find soy and palm wax candles, and particularly like the palm candles. They are less expensive than beeswax, and burn well too. Be mindful to purchase palm candles that are sustainably harvested.

Candle Colors

Here are some symbolic associations, meanings, and magical uses of candles by color:

Black—Trusting the unknown, traveling into the void, dreams and visions, seeking lost objects and/or people, rites of passage, letting go

There is no such thing as a “wrong” color to use. Trust your instincts.

You can use both physical and imagined symbols to represent what you are calling forth, and as a point of focus that helps evoke and direct your intent, concentration, feelings, and magical/creative energy. A spell incorporates conscious use of the imagination, and then adds the dimension of crafting a physical item to be a container for the creative life energy you are stirring with your spell.

More Do’s and Don’ts of Spells

Spells aimed at manifesting something are usually best done for yourself, rather than for someone else, especially when you are new at practicing magic. It’s often hard enough to know exactly what you really want at any given moment, much less what anyone else wants. Doing spells for other people can easily entangle you in situations that are not your own and, unless you are highly practiced, can bring complications that you surely don’t need. It’s also more transformative to recover magic for your own self.

Every act, magical or otherwise, brings consequences. Spell work can be very helpful in developing and fine-tuning your personal sense of honor, integrity, and ethics. Power is best used to serve, not rule. Magic practiced with an open hand and an open heart is the best kind of magic. Invoke exactly what you want, and then trust what you receive. You will always get what you need.

It doesn’t matter whether you ask the Universe, the Goddess, God, Spirit, Energy, Creator, All-That-Is, the Life Force, Divine Power, synchronicity, or the Tao. Just know that placing your absolute trust in it encourages the most wonderful magic to happen. Besides, “it” is wiser than you or I, and far more powerful—and will always get the final word every time, anyway!

Spells can be done alone, or by a group of people coming together to create a magical energy field. By calling the elements into a sacred circle and working within a supportive group, each individual’s personal magical focus can be further strengthened. Lastly, and perhaps most intriguingly for recovering Healing Magic in the everyday world, a group can gather with a united desire that is focused on social justice.

You could say that spells are a way of dramatizing your prayers, praises, intentions, desires, and commitments—making them beautiful, touching, and exciting. Spells can be quite serious when the occasion warrants it, and at other times they can be a lot of fun to dream up and enact. Sometimes, they can be both. Spells are rewarding whether or not they are “successful,” and unexpected results are sometimes even more valuable than the ones you’d envisioned.

Spells, like all authentic magic, always lead to self-revelation. If you are a willing student, your spells can teach you helpful things about the beliefs and feelings you hold about yourself, about other people, and about how the Universe works. Your beliefs are not necessarily true. The key is this: if you discover that your beliefs—true or false— support and encourage your growing freedom, joy, and creativity, let them be, at least for now. If you discover that your beliefs are limiting your full, joyous participation in life, you can be quite sure they are illusory. Be willing to let them change with the help of magic.

When you believe something, or believe in something, you have already separated yourself from it. This is different from what you know. You can only know what you are in intimate relationship with, something of which you are part. I don’t believe in magic, I know magic. We are magic.

]]>Building Resilience with Tarot: An Excerpt from Holistic Tarothttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/building-resilience-with-tarot-an-excerpt-from-holistic-tarot/
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:32:18 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=58047Adapted from Holistic Tarot by Benebell Wen. Using Tarot to Build Resilience Building personal resilience and crisis management tools is a broad topic and not one specific to tarot—but the Seekers who are most inclined to consult a tarot practitioner are typically ones who are troubled. Any little measure that you, the practitioner, can take ...continue

Using Tarot to Build Resilience

Building personal resilience and crisis management tools is a broad topic and not one specific to tarot—but the Seekers who are most inclined to consult a tarot practitioner are typically ones who are troubled. Any little measure that you, the practitioner, can take to guide a Seeker to build resilience should be pursued, though be fully aware that you do not assume the role of a licensed counselor, especially if you are not one. Your role is to remind the Seeker of the wisdom and insights into crisis management that the archetypes of tarot can offer.

It is said that resilience is the secret to crisis management. Resilient people have seven characteristics in common:

Humor. They are able to smile, laugh, and find humor even in the wake of tragedy. They can laugh at themselves and at their situation.

Expression. Resilient individuals have the ability to express their emotions.

Focus. They focus on taking baby steps toward their goals and are able to plot a road map from vision to goal.

Connections. They foster strong social connections and reach out to them when in need.

Devotion. No matter how busy they are, they will make time to take care of themselves, i.e., eat healthy, exercise regularly, maintain their spiritual or religious practices, etc.

When crisis hits our lives, our pain and struggle indicate that the status quo approach is insufficient and other components must be introduced or reinforced. Oftentimes a tarot reading can help enlighten us as to which of the seven components are missing or weak. Crisis can be thought of as 20 percent materiality and 80 percent perception. Thus, managing your perception of the situation is more than half the battle.

Applying tarot analytics through the framework of the above seven characteristics can help a Seeker with the process of diagnosing a crisis and identifying what needs to be done, and even formulating contingency plans. Follow-up tarot readings can then be used to help the Seeker monitor his or her progress of actions. By scheduling follow-up tarot readings about the crisis, the Seeker is effectively assuring that he or she will maintain the momentum and focus to drive out of the crisis.

When certain cards appear in a spread, consider how those cards reflect the seven characteristics for resilience, and which are notably lacking in the Seeker. In analyzing a crisis situation through tarot analytics, often card reversals will suggest latent energies that need to be brought out into the limelight by the Seeker. The card reversals can suggest potential or inactive characteristics that the Seeker must activate in order to manage the crisis.

The Seven Characteristics of Resilience

1. Optimism

While the Death card may not initially seem to indicate optimism, it does. Death is about a painful transitioning period, but once the transition or transformation is made, all will be better. Thus, when the Death card appears the Seeker should be reminded to be optimistic, as resilience is built from a positive attitude and eyes on the bright sunrise ahead.

The Star card in reverse suggests pessimism in the Seeker as a root cause of the problem, so when it appears, remind the Seeker that he or she must embody the traits of the Star upright, and be more optimistic and hopeful in his or her own outlook. The Sun card in reverse can indicate a delay in success, so the Seeker is urged to remain persistent and keep positive because the endurance of that optimistic energy is needed before the Seeker can attain his or her goals.

2. Confidence

A critical element of resilience is confidence. While optimism is a trust in the good to come to the Seeker from the cosmos, confidence is the Seeker’s trust in him- or herself. Confidence is the certitude in one’s own abilities. It is what allows us to envision our success and then execute fully toward that success.

When the Magician card appears in reverse, it could be an indication that the Seeker needs to build his or her confidence or needs to regain empowerment. The Emperor upright would suggest a great deal of confidence, authority, and empowerment, but in reverse, can hint at the potential characteristics of the Seeker that need to become kinetic. The Strength card is self-explanatory. The Queen of Swords, upright or reversed, also shares the theme of confidence.

3. Humor

Resilient individuals are able to laugh at themselves and to laugh in the face of an otherwise dire, tragic situation. Humor is healing. Cards like the Fool or the Page of Wands bring light humor into our lives, and when they appear surrounded by more severe cards, these cards suggest the glimmer of light inside the Seeker that must now shine out. When the Fool or the Page of Wands appear in reverse, they could be a reminder to the Seeker to call back his or her childhood essence, to see the world with humor again.

While more prominently a card about childhood and nostalgia, the Six of Cups can also indicate humor and sentimentality. When it appears, it is a reminder to the Seeker to put a smile on his or her face. To some extent, the Seven of Swords is also about humor, about a person of unconventional mannerisms. There is a jester component to the Seven of Swords that reminds us to stay light on our feet, no matter the circumstances.

4. Expression

Having an outlet for expressing pain is crucial for resilience and, for many, crucial for maintaining one’s sanity. Typical artist cards like the three of Pentacles and Eight of Pentacles, while more pertinent to craft as a profession rather than mere expression, can often reveal outlets for expression. The suit of Cups is the suit of human expression, and the court cards of the suit remind us to be expressive. A Cups court card often appears in reverse and takes on a figurative meaning for Seekers who are in need of expressing themselves, people who have been bottling their feelings. Such Seekers should thus be encouraged to use outlets of expression to get the pain out of their systems.

When a Seeker is going through a crisis and consults a tarot practitioner for a reading, the practitioner should use the opportunity to remind the Seeker of the importance of expression. Expressing one’s pain through the arts helps tremendously with coping. Oftentimes when the question is about how the Seeker can cope with emotional pain, many Cups cards will appear in the spread, suggesting the need for expression.

5. Focus

When the Chariot appears in reverse in a reading, it could indicate that one of the reasons for the Seeker’s troubles is a lack of focus. The Seeker’s personality and desires are dispersed in too many directions and he or she must channel them in a focused way to meet the objective. The two yang aces, the Ace of Wands and Ace of Swords, also denote focus, so when they appear in reverse they suggest a Seeker who is insufficiently exercising his or her will and determination. The Eight of Wands is another card about focus. Upright, it can indicate that focus is a key point for the Seeker. Reversed, it can indicate that the Seeker is too passive and needs to be more driven.

Cards that denote focus in a reading urge the Seeker to be persistent and to push forward with baby steps. They can indicate stagnation as the main culprit and thus, by identifying what Seeker is not doing correctly, can help the Seeker move forward.

6. Connection

A strong human support network is critical for crisis management. When we are alone with our pain, our pain intensifies and we have no other energies of warmth around us to help absorb some of our negativity. If the personal aura is weak, it is critical to be around stronger, more positive auras, to borrow another’s strength for a while, until we are able to generate our own.

Oftentimes a Seeker will be in trouble, but will not have told anyone in his or her life about the troubles. As a result, the Seeker is dealing with the pain alone and the solitude has in fact exacerbated the trouble. In these cases, cards may appear that urge the Seeker to reach out and get help or support from loved ones.

The Two of Cups suggests friendship or connection. While it generally denotes a romance with a strong foundation of friendship, it can also take on the meaning of a best friend or confi dante, a single other peer who is there for us. The Two of Cups is about connecting with our soul mate. The Tthree of Cups suggests friendship or connection in a group of friends, often of the same gender. Most prominently, it denotes sisterhood and female companionship for female Seekers. The Six of Cups is about connections to our past. The Ten of Cups suggests family connections. It may remind the Seeker of his or her strong familial support and the value of reaching out to them now in the Seeker’s time of need.

Note how the Three, the Six, and the Ten in the suit of Pentacles resonate with the connective messages of the Three, the Six, and the Ten in the suit of Cups, previously discussed. The Three of Pentacles is about connecting to our professional peers or our professional establishment. The Six of Pentacles is about connecting to other social classes. Philanthropy is not often thought of as a social connection, but when one is lonely or troubled, an effective way of assuaging those troubles is through charity work. By being a benefactor, you bring goodness into your life. Thus, the Six of Pentacles could suggest that a Seeker consider volunteer work, or adopt a personal mission or philanthropy. The Six of Pentacles can indicate our connection with society. The Ten of Pentacles is about connecting to family or forging familial alliances for mutual gain.

7. Devotion

I have synthesized several crisis management concepts under the component “devotion.” Studies have found that resilient individuals who successfully navigate through crises have faith. That could be a spiritual or religious faith, or it could be faith in their abilities to endure through the darkness. That is different from confidence, which is a trust that the Seeker can accomplish what he or she sets out to accomplish. Faith is a trust that the Seeker has in his or her own greater purpose.

A secondary component to devotion is devotion to personal health and wellness. I have connected health and wellness to faith because faith begets a natural inclination to treat the body as a temple and care for it. So, for example, when the Temperance card appears in reverse, or the Four of Swords, or Five of Pentacles, the Seeker should take better care of his or her body and mind. The Hierophant can suggest the need for spiritual or religious faith, and Temperance can suggest personal balance, the need to observe healthier personal habits to restore temperance of the body. The Four of Swords is also a red flag to the Seeker to pay more attention to his or her health and well-being.

]]>Crystal Care, Conjuring, and Crafting from Sacred Medicine Cupboardhttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/crystal-care-conjuring-and-crafting-from-sacred-medicine-cupboard/
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 21:52:15 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=58043Adapted from Sacred Medicine Cupboard Magic is an attempt to understand, experience, and influence the world using rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language. Magic can include storytelling, imagination, intention, touch, and ritual. In pagan traditions, a spell is literally linking letters together to make words that spell out your intentions; this pure prose expresses and ...continue

Magic is an attempt to understand, experience, and influence the world using rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language. Magic can include storytelling, imagination, intention, touch, and ritual. In pagan traditions, a spell is literally linking letters together to make words that spell out your intentions; this pure prose expresses and shapes your understanding and experience of the world. This perception, in turn, influences the outcome of your experience. And that is magic—right?

What are you doing when you pray? You are sending words up to your god/goddess for help or assistance. Praying is something of a lost art in our busy world, but it is a sacred and important one. When we pray, we are in communication with Spirit. We are sending our thoughts and therefore our intention out (or in, as the case may be) to connect with Source—the energy of all life, which is pure, divine, abundant, and life-affirming.

Crystal Care: Grounding, Balancing, and Programming Basics

It’s time to create some everyday magic with these vibration-raising goodies.

We recommend and use crystals regularly. Crystals are wonderful at supporting you in your deep work; all you really need to do is request specific help from a crystal that resonates with whatever energies you are working with.

When you find a crystal that resonates with your intention, you can ask it to help you in some specific way. This kind of crystal task-assignment is called “programming,” much as the silicon crystals in computers get programmed. Here are some top tips for working with these guides.

Basic crystal cleaning and programming instructions

Clean your crystal. Cleaning is not for washing away negative energy; it is for helping your crystals to return to their own natural, harmonious vibration. You can help your crystals retune to this natural vibration by leaving them in the sunlight, or placing them in a bowl of salt, or burying them in the earth. Not all crystals should be washed in water, either; a good rule of thumb is never to wash any crystal whose name ends in “-ite,” as these tend to be porous and can be damaged by water.

Sit with your crystal in a quiet place. Hold your crystal in your hand, and bring it up to your heart. Close your eyes and, with an exhalation, say your intention to your crystal.3. Hold your crystal until you feel a connection. This relationship can be perceived through warmth, images, or feelings—it is different for everyone.

Maintain the connection. Carry your crystal with you, and every time you touch it you will be reminded of your path.

Conjuring and Crafting

Here are some spells and potions to diversify your medicine cupboard stores. Infuse each ingredient with the soft whispers of your soul. Layer actions, intentions, and words together in the time-honored practice of spellcraft, to bestir the most potent magic of your creations.

Black Salt

Black Salt has been used for centuries as a protection against all forms of negative energy. It can also be used for banishing toxic folks you truly do not want in your space. Salt is a crystal, and therefore is able to form and hold energy. An old wives’ tale is that salt bends to our will, and will do anything we ask of it.

Black salt is extremely easy to make, and it takes only a couple of minutes to throw together

a batch to last you for a while. This is ceremonial salt, so while you are making it, hold the intention of protection for your home, your family, and yourself.

1 cup sea salt or kosher salt

½ cup finely ground charcoal

½ cup finely ground black pepper

10 drops rosemary essential oil

Use a mortar and pestle to grind all of the ingredients together. Store in a jar.

Sprinkle Black Salt along the threshold of your doorway to keep your home safe. The idea is that it will keep bad energies and people from wanting to enter your home. You can even sprinkle it along the edge of your yard, if you want your entire property to be protected. If you need protection from bad dreams, or wish to rid your bed of negative energies, sprinkle a little black salt under your bed, or keep it in a bowl near or under your bed.

Once your black salt has served its purpose, be sure to throw it out. It has already used up its charge, and therefore holds no more protective energies. If you try to reuse it, there is no guarantee that it will work.

Marigold Tea

Marigolds are the flower of the season, and are filled with marvelous healing properties as well as brilliant beauty! The marigold flower is amazing for overall health. The tea purifies the blood, and the plant also has antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties, and is excellent in healing burns, corns, and calluses.

2 teaspoons dried marigolds

1 whole star anise

1 whole clove

Dry out the buds in a well-ventilated area (don’t dry them in the oven, even on low heat). Hang them upside-down and keep them out of direct sunlight—after a couple of weeks, they will have dried thoroughly. (If you do not want to dry them yourself, most health food and herbal remedies stores carry dried marigolds.)

]]>Letter from the Publisher: Changed in a Flashhttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/letter-from-the-publisher-changed-in-a-flash/
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 23:39:21 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=58020 One of the challenges of publishing books that question conventional wisdom is that conventional methods for determining their validity are not wholly sufficient. After all, conventional wisdom would never evolve if brave voices (and brave publishers) didn’t take chances on positions that at first blush seemed unlikely, unusual, or even unfathomable. As Einstein famously ...continue

One of the challenges of publishing books that question conventional wisdom is that conventional methods for determining their validity are not wholly sufficient. After all, conventional wisdom would never evolve if brave voices (and brave publishers) didn’t take chances on positions that at first blush seemed unlikely, unusual, or even unfathomable. As Einstein famously said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Or the corollary: Be careful about calling bullshit when we so often get the truth wrong.

This challenge resides at the heart of Elizabeth Krohn’s and Jeffrey Kripal’s new book Changed in a Flash: One Woman’s Near-Death Experience and Why a Scholar Thinks It Empowers Us All. In this fascinating and unusual account, Krohn, a self-admitted skeptic, details the nonordinary, telepathic powers endowed to her after she was struck by lighting in a parking lot while holding an umbrella. In many ways Krohn’s experience is not that unconventional within the realm of paranormal literature: the beautifully told vision she has during her near-death experience intersects with other descriptions of this phenomenon; the way her psychic capabilities manifest are unique but also familiar.

This is the very point that Kripal, a professor of religion at Rice University, picks up on in the second half of the book. Krohn’s experience is exceptional not because it is so unique; rather it is important because it is yet another story in the growing canon of paranormal experiences. Kripal expertly guides readers on an inquiry: not into whether Krohn’s experience is fact or fiction, but rather into why it’s so difficult for Western discourse to take such claims seriously. We certainly have an accepted bucket for this kind of thought—religion—but what if Krohn’s experience was more akin to the quotidian than the supernatural? Kripal suggests we reject liminal experiences out of hand at our own peril: that our inability to truly integrate them into our belief systems is a crisis of the imagination that shuts us off from our full human potential.

It’s interesting to note that 75 percent of Americans profess a belief in the paranormal. When you get down to it, almost everyone has had some sort of experience that cannot be explained by reason alone. And yet, as Kripal points out, he largely encounters three responses to stories of nonordinary experiences: 1) “It must be a hoax—the source is a self-interested huckster”; 2) “The storyteller has made an honest misperception—there must be some other explanation”; 3) “It may be true but I’m not going to think too much about its implications.” The least common conclusion is the one Kripal is inviting readers to make, namely: 4) “This individual story is likely true, and it may point to universal questions of what we constitute as ‘truth.'”

At present our world is both breaking down and breaking open; what were once stable systems are beginning to fray, in large part because much of what they were built on was either extractive or exclusionary—both Mother Nature and the people are speaking up, and the shift is seismic. Simultaneously, there are new movements and technologies and language and identities and modes of thinking springing across the broken shards. Some of these have been there all along; perhaps we couldn’t, or wouldn’t, see them. At this critical juncture, the choice seems simple: to fully embrace at the very least a sincere curiosity in what was once in shadow. What will we see? What can we learn? We do not need to know to start.

]]>The Curious History of Pumpkins (+ Recipes!)https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/curious-history-pumpkins-recipes/
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 17:00:36 +0000http://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=43959A few years ago, we published The Curious History of Vegetables—one part folklore, one part anthropology, and 100% love letter to the secret life of food. In a global deep-dive into our relationships with veggies, Wolf Storl explores the complex, multilayered meanings we’ve ascribed to everything from the elusive artichoke to the humble potato. Since the ...continue

]]>A few years ago, we publishedThe Curious History of Vegetables—one part folklore, one part anthropology, and 100% love letter to the secret life of food. In a global deep-dive into our relationships with veggies, Wolf Storl explores the complex, multilayered meanings we’ve ascribed to everything from the elusive artichoke to the humble potato. Since the beginning of time, humans have imbued inanimate objects with meaning, and it should come as no surprise that our food has more symbolic layers—political, social, religious, economic, moral, even emotional—than might first meet the eye. In The Curious History of Vegetables, you’ll learn who used tomatoes to spice up—as the author calls it—“human goulash”; why rowdy radishes had to be consecrated by priests on February 22nd; and which vegetables were used during the medieval period to get in—or, should the need arise, quickly out of—the mood. In today’s Halloween sneak peek, we’re taking a look at the trials and tales of—what else—the pumpkin.

Pumpkin, Squash

Cucurbita pepo

The opulent pumpkin plant, with its big, rough leaves and tendrils, yellow gold blossoms, and big, round, orange fruits is a newcomer to European gardens. Columbus was the first European to see a pumpkin field on December 3, 1492, on Cuba.

He knew at once that it was a kind of “Indian” Cucurbita, or Curbita, because that was what the learned ones of those days called the melons (Cucumis) and gourds (Lagenaria) of the Old World. In northern Europe, besides cucumbers and poisonous bryony—which was used in magic rituals—not much attention was paid to this plant family, if for no other reason than that they need a lot of warmth and are very sensitive to frost. Wonderfully sweet watermelons were known since ancient times in Mediterranean countries as common refreshment—like ice cream nowadays—and gourds, with their hard, dry shells, were also used by the Romans to make containers, drinking vessels, and rattles, but otherwise, squash wasn’t a very big deal. This American pumpkin, however, was of a completely different caliber.

The pumpkin was a mainstay in the cuisines of indigenous North and South Americans and is one of the oldest cultivated plants. For them, at least in Columbus’s time, it was regarded as an incarnated goddess who had descended from the heavens, along with corn and beans. Cave findings of pumpkin seeds in Oaxaca, Mexico, and other places are dated to some 10,000 years B.C.E. These were wild plants, small and bitter, gathered for their seeds, which had valuable protein and oils. In the course of the following thousands of years, Native Americans were able to cultivate hundreds of squash plants of different sizes, shapes, and colors—crookneck squash, flying saucer squash, pumpkin, chayote squash, and banana squash, and many others that had delicate, easily digestible flesh.

In the Americas of today, gardeners still produce a striking variety of this plant family, all referred to as squash. Because the white settlers had no word for this unusual vegetable, they took over the Algonquian word askutasquash (“eaten raw”), which they truncated to “squash.” In Britain, where “squash” refers to either a pressed citrus fruit juice or a game similar to tennis, the vegetable is called “vegetable marrow.” Americans distinguish between winter and summer squash; the former (C. maxima, C. moschata) kinds have a round stem and are eaten when fully ripe; the latter (C. pepo) have a square stem and are usually eaten before they are ripe. Among these various summer squash, zucchini is one of the all time favorites. It is extremely productive. It blossoms continually and each plant continually produces long, green, cucumber-like fruits. No matter how many various recipes there are for the wonderful vegetable, a single family cannot use all that is produced. (One solution is to try some of the blossoms fried in batter.)

As it was for the Native Americans, the pumpkin also has cult status in modern America. Not only was pumpkin pie used to celebrate harvest time celebrations, but also the pumpkin has become the present day symbol for Halloween. Now, the pumpkin reminds us of the transition between the rapidly changing seasons. Whether it is ingested or used for decoration, the history of the pumpkin dates back hundreds of years.

Since the 16th century, the giant pumpkin grows in the gardens and fields of Europe, but it’s taken Europeans a long time to warm up to eating it. In France it is mainly used as cattle fodder. The huge berry—botanically speaking, it is a “berry”—inspired fantasy imaginations in Europe. Charles Perrault incorporated it into his version of Cinderella by having it turn into Cinderella’s carriage. And even modern-day mythology finds inspiration from pumpkins in relation to otherworldliness. The extraterrestrials that are supposed to have been stranded in the Mojave Desert, the “galactic boat people,” are generally called “pumpkin heads” because of the shape of their heads (which is, of course, also a term for a nitwit). Moreover, the pumpkin has probably found its greatest place as a symbol for Halloween.

Halloween was already celebrated in ancient times in Northern Europe. The Celts knew it as the time of year (Samain—when the moon is full in November) when the spirits of the dead temporarily leave their resting places and roam around the countryside. In order to receive their blessings and protect one’s family from possible spooks and pranks, people would put out some food and set out a light, usually near the main door of their house. The Celts hollowed out a big turnip and carved a face into it, using it as a lantern. In America, their descendants who had immigrated to the New World replaced the turnip with a pumpkin, and the festival also became more secular. In the wake of global Americanization, pumpkins were also used in Europe for fall festivities.

Some of these festivals introduced the pumpkin as a “moon” plant, which related the pumpkin to the dead. The old European Christian belief was that the souls of the dead go first to the moon on their way to higher spiritual planes. Mexican Indians also made offerings of cooked pumpkin to their dead and set out hollowed out pumpkins with pointed teeth and scary faces carved into them. But it wasn’t just in the Western Hemisphere where the pumpkin held special status.

As pumpkin and various other squash vegetables came to be known in the Old World, each region developed its own relationship to the quaint plants. For the Chinese, the pumpkin became a symbol for the primeval oneness of yin/yang; for the Africans it became a symbol for the world egg containing the seeds of all human beings. Because the pumpkin is chock-full of seeds, for the Turks it symbolizes the female ovary and protects from the “evil eye;” In Cairo, pumpkins are hung up to protect from the evil eye.

In rural South Africa, pumpkins also became part of the folk- and healing lore. The Zulus and other Southern African peoples cook the yellow blossoms to a kind of relish that’s eaten with corn mush. Roasted seeds are a popular snack. The herbal healers, the shamans of the Zulus, who are called njangas, cook the leaves and put them on the chest as hot compresses for pneumonia; they give a tea made of the roots for rheumatic pains, and give ground seeds to get rid of band worms.

The seeds were also used for greater purposes in Europe. The country folk transferred a sympathetic magic onto the pumpkin that applied to other big vegetables: the seeds should be sown on Pentecost when the church bells ring so that “they will grow to be as big as church bells.” The seeds should be carried in a big bucket or a big basket. In Breslau, they asked a big woman with a big bottom to sit on the seeds so that the pumpkins would grow as big as her hindquarters. One should tell a big lie while sowing—so they will grow to be big. In Lausanne, Switzerland, the farmers brought the seeds to church to be blessed on Annunciation Day. The pumpkins should then swell up like the virgin’s belly. Country lore says: “St. Stanislaus (May 7th) Day makes pumpkins big.” Or: “St. Urban (May 25th) brings a big turban.” “If one sows the seeds before sunrise on St. Walpurga’s Day (April 30th) or May 1st—a festival exactly diametrically opposed to the fall festival of Samain (Halloween)—then they will thrive as fast as witches fly (they are known to be out flying around during Walpurgis night, the night from April 30th to May 1st). In Brittany, they are sown on Good Friday so that they will “resurrect” in big style.

Garden Tips:

Soil: The pumpkin is a frost-sensitive heavy feeder that grows best in sandy loam that has been well supplied with rotted manure. A mid-season application of compost tea will spur growth. Any kind of squash plants also thrive well when planted into an old compost pile.

Cultivation: One can soak the seeds in milk until they are well swollen before sowing. The seeds are planted into raised mounds after there is no more danger of frost. In the middle of the growing period liquid compost will spur growth. If grown with nasturtiums and angel’s trumpet, they thrive very well and will not get aphids. (Larry Berger)

For the Native Americans, pumpkins were not only a source of nourishment but also used for healing. The Mayans used the juice in salves for burns. The Aztecs made a medicine out of pumpkin seeds in combination with onions and wormseed (Chenopodium ambrosioides) for round worms and band worms, and they made a medicine for bladder and kidney diseases out of the pulp. The Catawba chewed the seeds for kidney problems; the Cherokee and Menominee used them as a diuretic and to cleanse the urine for bedwetting, dropsy, burning sensations while urinating, and cramps in the urinary organs.

European folk medicine is quite similar: Pumpkin is a diet food for stomach troubles, and kidney/bladder ailments; fresh pumpkin pulp is applied to furuncles, abscesses, varicose veins, and cankerous sores. It was traditionally believed to heal not only for physical reasons but also because of “the pure radiance of life energy.” Pumpkin seed oil heals wounds, especially burns, and cracked skin. Pumpkin seeds are still eaten nowadays to get rid of worms. To this effect about 300 grams (10 oz.) of pumpkin seeds are eaten; the worms do not die but they are paralyzed and after thirty minutes they can be excreted after taking ½ tablespoon of castor oil. Famous Pastor Kneipp prescribed this cure with the addition of drinking the seeds down with some vermouth tea. In the meantime research shows that the seeds help with benign swollen prostate gland; they contain delta-7 sterols, which resemble the male sex hormone, dihydrotestosterone, as well as vitamin E and selenium, which has an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect. Pumpkin seeds are also interesting for cancer research because they contain peponin, which is said to block the production of HIV-1 enzymes.

Fry onions and yellow boletus with bay leaves and sage leaves in olive oil and deglaze with white wine. Add vegetable broth and cream and bring to a boil, then add hominy to bind slightly. Add herb salt and let simmer for about twenty minutes. Add pumpkin and continue to simmer with a lid on for about five minutes.

]]>Have Fun! Fight Fascism!https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/have-fun-fight-fascism/
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 22:13:14 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=57299A (Brief) History of the Northwest Club Coalition by Cristien Storm and Kate Boyd, founders of If You Don’t They Will and The Northwest Club Coalition Trigger Warning: This post contains graphic language and mention of sexual violence. It’s summer, 2001. Because we are in the Northwest it is, of course, raining. We are inside ...continue

It’s summer, 2001. Because we are in the Northwest it is, of course, raining. We are inside binging Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes and key lime pie liqueur. Needless to say, at some point, we needed a break to go outside. At a local coffee shop we picked up our weekly paper, The Stranger, to check out the “pick of the week.” We saw an endorsement of a show called the “Angry White Male Tour.” Organized by Shane Bugbee of Michael Hunt Publishing (“MyCunt” Publishing), the show promised a “free speech extravaganza” of “controversial” artists and musicians, featuring Jim Goad, author of The Redneck Manifesto and the Answer Me Zine.

We went to the website, curious about why The Stranger would promote an event featuring artists such as Goad, known for mocking rape and domestic violence. In one click, a tour site came up that included a barrage of confederate flags as part of its marketing. The show featured artists with (loose) affiliations with white nationalist groups. It was not necessarily an overt white nationalist show, but would definitely galvanize white nationalists in the area, create recruiting opportunities, and if it occurred without incident, would help normalize and potentially mainstream even more overtly white nationalist events. A clear example of the impact of mainstreaming is Jim Goad’s work, which, when featured in the ‘Angry White Male” tour, was recently lauded as the Proud Boys’ (a white nationalist group) bible.

As we scrambled to figure out what to do, we realized that we did not have a network of music community people who were ready and able to respond and so we decided to create The Northwest Club Coalition (NWCC).

The NWCC was a network of musicians, artists, performers, club owners, young people, and fans dedicated to countering the rise of white power music and the growing, violent impact of white nationalism on music and art spaces. The NWCC helped communities identify and creatively respond to white nationalism. Our commitments included:

Committing to the development of youth leadership from music/arts communities;

Building vibrant music scene cultures that clearly speak out against white nationalist violence by researching and exposing white nationalist activity;

Have Fun! Fight Fascism!

Facts, debate, guilt, and shame are not enough to build vibrant, resilient alternatives to white supremacy and white nationalism. A radical principle in our organizing was/is always about developing and prioritizing relationships, and being creative, snarky, bold, imaginative, and having fun. No doubt, fighting white nationalism is hard and can be demoralizing. Supporting one another and having fun together is critical to anti-fascist cultural organizing and boundary setting.

NWCC began with face-to-face conversations with anyone and everyone involved in the music community, and with genuine commitments to support each venue in the way that worked best for them. Our conversations generated on-going anti-racist strategies, strengthened relationships, and galvanized immediate actions. Some clubs shutdown and canceled shows with any white nationalist affiliations. Others took the lead in developing protocols for bookers, security, bartenders, and promoters to vet and avoid these bands in the first place. Other strategies included: allowing us to do workshops for their staff; incorporating updates around white nationalist activity into security trainings; developing a “phone-tree” communication network between clubs; creating policies and contracts that refuse to book bands with white nationalist connections; making anti-racist signs and t-shirts; promoting anti-racist and anti-fascist counter shows; raising money for local organizations; and letting the NWCC table at events.

Music shows continue to be contested spaces that white nationalists use to organize, recruit, network, and fundraise. An important lesson we learned in creating NWCC was the value of cultivating a vibrant, complex, and nuanced array of boundaries when countering white nationalism. One way NWCC embodied our various principles and practices was to organize a tour called The Young Americans. The tour focused on de-urbanizing white supremacist organizing efforts and strengthening regional networks, supporting youth leadership, and going where white power bands toured—effectively drawing anti-fascist boundaries around the spaces they were trying to organize in, and competing for their potential recruits. Music shows create long-lasting bonds, a sense of belonging, and provide cultural foundations in which to organize people. Anti-racists and anti-fascists need to actively counter white nationalist cultural organizing and feed energy and time into our own cultures of belonging and resistance to work towards building the world we want. Music tours and networks like The Northwest Club Coalition are an important part of this work.

]]>Relationship Ground Ruleshttps://www.northatlanticbooks.com/blog/relationship-ground-rules/
Thu, 06 Sep 2018 20:51:08 +0000https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/?p=57211Every relationship is different. Some people love ground rules and find them super helpful. Other people think relationship ground rules are unnecessary and even punitive—like a chore wheel that gets posted on the fridge and forgotten about until a conflict arises and one partner uses it to point out all the things the other person ...continue

]]>Every relationship is different. Some people love ground rules and find them super helpful. Other people think relationship ground rules are unnecessary and even punitive—like a chore wheel that gets posted on the fridge and forgotten about until a conflict arises and one partner uses it to point out all the things the other person hasn’t done. In other words, ground rules, like a lot of things, can be useful and supportive—and can also be unhelpful or weaponized depending on interpersonal context and relationship dynamics.

When I was developing self-defense and boundary setting curricula at Home Alive we spent a good deal of time discussing ground rules for classes. There were many conversations, disagreements, and conflicts not only about which ground rules to include, but also about the goal and function of having ground rules themselves in classes. In addition, while we eventually agreed on a few core ground rules, teachers used them differently in different classes, and they were constantly evolving. Through this experience, I realized that an exploration of ground rules can be as important as actually creating and agreeing on a particular set of them. The process is as important as the content generated and at times can be even more important.

Given that ground rules can offer different things to different relationships, it can be beneficial to pivot from trying to create the best or most effective ones to exploring what ground rules mean to people involved in the relationship; how they would like ground rules to function inside the relationship; and how they might (or might not be) helpful.

There are myriad ways this can look and before trying to generate a list of them, it can be helpful to explore what feels important to each person about starting a conversation about ground rules. For example, what is the goal and purpose for developing them? Sometimes people have really different ideas about the purpose of ground rules, which results in people using and interacting with them in different and sometimes conflictual ways. If one partner views ground rules as helpful suggestions, while another person sees them as rock solid rules to abide by, conflicts can arise.

Another useful exploration may be about the function or role people expect ground rules to serve. Are people using ground rules to anticipate and avoid conflicts? Or to develop equitable communication skills? Build relationship skills for conflict resolution? Improve communication? Avoid arguments? Create structures that affirm people’s wants and needs? The function of ground rules (and there may be different functions for different rules) will inform what kinds of ground rules may be desirable and helpful in a relationship.

This kind of exploration can be an attempt to illuminate unspoken, or at times even unconscious, assumptions. Partners may be unaware about assumptions, ideas, values, or judgments about how to handle things like conflict, savings, debt, extended family, emotional intensity, job security, pets, education, social justice, class, what constitutes a clean house, budgeting, or friendships outside the relationship. Sometimes people are unaware of a judgment or value until there is a conflict that challenges it. How a relationship handles these moments is as important (and sometimes more important) than having ground rules. For example, making ground rules about who will pay for what, or that all purchases will be split 50-50, may be helpful. However, if there are differences in personal and emotional relationships to money, class differences informing values about money, or different approaches to budgeting and making purchases, something that seems clear can explode quickly into complex and emotional terrain.

There is no one right way to explore ground rules, no particular end goal, or correct result. Exploration involves being curious and open. Listed below are some questions and prompts to get things started.